Lights, camera, action — and more: Black box theater at Holyoke Media becomes a forum for the arts and other events
By STEVE PFARRERStaff Writer Musicians are always looking for another venue to play. Actors and playwrights search for a new place to stage a show. Dancers want another floor to move on. At Holyoke Media, they all can find room. The independent, nonprofit...
Happenings in the Valley
Our online calendar has listings from organizations across the country hosting virtual events, but we’ve chosen to highlight some from local venues and groups.
Stagestruck: What I Did on My Summer Staycation
In the usual summer theater season, I’ll see dozens of plays and put hundreds of miles on the odometer. But in this most unusual summer, the car stayed mostly in the driveway and I stayed mostly in the house. I did get to over two dozen shows – or rather, they were...
Stagestruck: The Hills Are Live – UPDATE
Just as this piece was about to be filed last week, Barrington Stage and Berkshire Theatre Group, the first-in-the-country theaters to reopen with live performances, received another blow to their well-laid plans.
Stagestruck: Live Theater Returns, Drive-In Style
In a former life I was a musician – a singer-songwriter in the ’70s mold. One of my most memorable gigs was a drive-in concert. I flashed right back to that summer night when I heard Eggtooth Productions was planning to take a peck at the Covid shell with a drive-in performance, live and socially distanced, not in a field but on a rooftop.
Stagestruck: Curtain Up on Stage 3
While most theaters in our area remain closed, others are looking past Zoom for ways to offer in-person performances. Last week, as I was thinking about this tipping point between lockdown and relaunch, I got an unexpected invitation.
Stagestruck: In the Zoom Room, Part 2
Until the theaters open up again, a lot of hope, and a lot of creativity, reside in the Zoom Room. This week we can tune in to a play written for and about that now-ubiquitous cyber-stage, and an original video production that harks back to an era when live theater was still the predominant entertainment medium.
Stagestruck: In the Zoom Room, part 1
Phase Two of Massachusetts’ staged reopening started this week, lifting some restrictions on public activities such as dining, swimming and hairdressing (really??) but not on live performance. That no-no doesn’t lift till Phase Four, which won’t come along till late July at the earliest. Meanwhile, there’s Zoom.
Monte Belmonte Wines: Uncorked on Netflix
Written by Prentice Penny, Uncorked will, at the very least, teach you how to read a basic wine label. And it might touch that part of your heart that makes you miss your mama.
Stagestruck: Summer Stages – The prospects for live performance
The images flashing behind the glass wall of your TV or computer just can’t replace the permeable fourth wall of live performance. As summer approaches, theater folks are longing for the proverbial smell of the actors’ greasepaint and the roar of the in-person crowd. And some theaters are delivering.
A horrifying chapter from U.S. history: “Wilmington’s Lie” details white supremacist attack on African Americans in 1898
“Wilmington’s Lie” is one of the most disturbing and frightening books I’ve ever read. It should be required reading for whites who scoff at the idea of white privilege.
Sessions
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Two Lyrical, Soulful Spitters: A Q&A with Springfield hip-hop artists T’Swan and Fabeyon
Rappers T’Swan and Fabeyon are hoping to mold a hip-hop music scene in their hometown of Springfield.
The V-Spot: Help Me Teach My Kid About Consent
Hi Yana, I have a seven-year-old son and I want to start teaching him about consent. Do you have any resources and tools for me as a parent to help him learn about consent as a kid? — Proactive Parent Dear PP, The brilliant Dutch sex education curriculum starts what...
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Cinemadope: The cinema scene of Franklin County
Despite its proximity to the more famous haunts of Northampton, Franklin County has always had its own lively arts scene.











